Edinburgh Fringe review by Steve Bennett

They mastered the big-ticket Fringe event with The Wrestling, now Max And Ivan are back to give Edinburgh 2018 a spirited send-off with Prom Night, half-party, half-site specific theatre piece.

For one night only, the cavernous Crags Community Sports Centre has been turned into Assembly High, complete with vintage cars parked outside. The walls have been festooned with campaign posters for would-be prom kings and queens, and the pendants of their basketball team, The Asses, who just thrashed Pleasance High. The rivals’ bad-loser coach, Coach Coach, has duly been banned from the premises, so that absolutely means we won’t see hide nor hair of him.

Max Olesker fronts the house band The Cummerbunds, with Ivan Gonzalez on bass – and the occasional interjection of some right-wing sentiment. This is McCarthy-era America, don’t forget. Albeit a McCarthy-era America that’s heard of the hits of Outkast, The Strokes and Barenaked Ladies.

Proceedings are opened by the unpopular Principal O Briain, – a real educator and definitely not a cheap TV celebrity, he points out, for surely such a man would have better things to do than this of a Friday night. He loudly jeered in pantomime spirit as he gave the witty commencement speech, full of nods to Mock The Week, before listing some advice, starting wryly: ‘Always wear sunglasses.’

Then we meet Matt Crosby, the nasal-sounding substitute teacher incompetent in every subject. So what does he sing? Wonderful World. ‘Don’t know much about history…’  He also set up a love triangle storyline, though that only fleetingly reappeared. But then there is a lot going on in the show.

Playing Christians in the drama group, Lazy Susan’s sketch about dating in the jazz era didn’t quite command the attention of the standing audience, who could chat through proceedings if they wanted, and often did. Their version of The Strokes’s Last Nite did, however, command the attention of council noise enforcement officer Angelos Epithemiou making he first of several visits threatening to shut the prom down. Oh no, jeopardy!

Prowling the gym floor was Alison Thea-Skot, ace reporter for the school newspaper, interviewing the star basketball player, who definitely wasn’t just some bloke she picked out of the audience. And where there is an American sports star there are cheerleaders: half a dozen gymnastic women, with Pappy’s Tom Parry looking not at all out of place.

Another brief, story strand, required the appointment of a new mascot. Jason Byre as Alfie The Ass and Nina Conti from Monkey apparently mated to produce the new hybrid, again played by an audience patsy. Both comics are masters of mucking around with punters on stage, but even they threatened to be flummoxed by the time-consuming process of getting him into his costume. But he turned out to be an excellent choice, given that he turned out to be a talented drummer who took the sticks for a rendition of La Bamba. All very The Killers, since that band have a tendency to recruit temporary drummers from the crowd.

Now for the election results. Rachel Parris was crowned prom queen, and celebrated by leading a singalong of (I’ve Had) The Time Of My Life which required her to draw on her improv skills since the lyric sheets had gone missing.

Prom king was a tie, between the jock, Ed Gamble, entitled son of the town mayor, and moody, introspective emo Andrew O’Neill. How to decide the winner? A talent contest! Gamble did a handstand; O’Neill brought the house down with a hard-rocking Johnny B Goode, beanie hat duly tipped to Back To The Future.

After another visit from noise enforcement, Kieran Hodgson, a man of God now, apparently, took to the stage intimating a tribute to a powerful woman who taught us all the meaning of R-E-S-P-E-C-T. No, not Aretha Franklin, but Khia, whose filthy My Neck, My Back he delivered with conviction. To be quickly followed by real-life couple Jayde Adams and Rich Wilson doing Minnie Ripperton’s Lovin’ You, by which point the link to the idea of a prom night had become temporarily untethered, and it was all a bit Karaoke Circus.

Another Cummerbunds track later and our revels are interrupted again. You’ll never guess by who? Coach Coach! Despite the ban! Here’s here to seek revenge, or in the words of the man inside the tracksuit, Adam Riches, a convenient dramatic resolution to the show. And with an inspired reincorporation of the basketball hero we’d all forgotten about, everything would be decided by a shootout which, after quite some heavy manipulation gave the correct result. Even the noise officer was impressed, giving permission for the prom party to dance into the night with a DJ - himself - on the decks.

But not before a couple of closing numbers from the Cummerbunds. And any night that ends with a high-octane rendition of Teenage Dirtbag can’t be too shoddy.

Review date: 25 Aug 2018
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Assembly High